


"I Let My Hair Grow After That."

by Breezy_202



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is First Nations, Cecil is a good listener, Crying, Death, Family, Feelings, Hair, M/M, Non-Sexual Intimacy, POCarlos, POCecil, Sad Fluff, family death mention, meeting famiy, residential school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 03:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1329385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Breezy_202/pseuds/Breezy_202
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Kokum and Mushum," He pointed to the woman and the man, respectively. "I don't think you've met either of them. Kokum passed away shortly after I moved here, so you wouldn't have met her for sure."</p><p>Cecil finds an old picture that brings up a lot of feelings within Carlos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"I Let My Hair Grow After That."

Spring cleaning day. There wasn't much to clean aside from going through boxes, re-organizing furniture, the finishing touches of moving in. Carlos was lazily digging through a box in the living room of his and Cecil's new condo, sorting through a box labelled as nothing more than "misc.". So far nothing too odd, mostly knick-knacks and coffee table books.

"How's it going in here?" Cecil poked his head into the room, a stack of picture frames in hand.

"Good, how about on your end?" 

"Very well, actually! I found lots of empty frames and some boxes with some very nice photographs of yours. You were so adorable at your high school graduation! You look so much more mature now." Cecil beamed, lifting the top frame and turning it around to show Carlos. The photo showed a young-looking Carlos, dressed in a navy graduation gown and cap, black and braided hair draped over his shoulder, smiling proudly, and an older couple with their arms around him.

"Wow, you must've dug deep to find that one," Carlos chuckled, reaching out to Cecil for him to pass the photo to him. "and this wasn't high school, this was college graduation."

"What?! Really? You look like you're 15! You must've been ID'd all the time." He walked further into the room, leaning over to hand the frame to Carlos. "Who was with you in this picture?"

"Kokum and Mushum," He pointed to the woman and the man, respectively. "I don't think you've met either of them." Carlos held the photo in both hands, rubbing his thumb over the frame. He reached up and ran his fingers through his barely shoulder-length hair, a faint smile flashing over his face.

"Grandparents?" Cecil asked, kneeling down next to him. "I don't remember meeting them, no. I don't recall you talking much of them either."

"Yes, Kokum means Grandma and Mushum means Grandpa. Kokum passed away shortly after I moved here, so you wouldn't have met her for sure." Carlos fidgeted, touching the back of his head, biting his lip, letting out uncomfortable half-giggles as he explained.

Cecil moved in closer, putting his arm around Carlos' shoulder. "I'm sorry, Carlos."

"I cut my hair for her," He looked at Cecil, tears welling in his eyes, a weak smile on his face. "to mourn for her. I had it kept long most of my life, aside from my first year of high school." He looked back at the photograph, tears spilling down his face. "I went and had it cut short the last day of summer vacation- I had toured my high school and noticed no other boys had their hair long and I wanted to fit in so badly. I didn't see Kokum or Mushum until a couple days in to school, they came to pick me up when my Mom had to work late. Oh boy, I thought Kokum was going to have a heart attack when she saw me." He laughed a little, wiping his tears and running his hands through his hair again. "When I got in, she grabbed me and kept saying 'what happened? what happened? where is your hair?' and when I told her I cut it to look like the other boys' hair I thought she was going to drive that car off a cliff." Tears continued to stream, but Carlos was smiling wider.

Cecil gently reached up, wiping the streaks of tears off Carlos' cheeks. 

"Kokum was chastising me the whole way home, she said she thought something awful had happened at school and that I shouldn't have scared her like that. She told me she was worried some of the same things she went through at school was happening to me too. She went to one of those Residential schools, you know. She didn't talk much about it, but when she did it was very difficult to hear. I let my hair grow after that." He sniffled, rubbing away the tears that still sat in his eyes. "I cut it again, but for her this time. I think she would've wanted me to. I guess it was the flow of life; I let go of my hair and let my Kokum pass on, and then you came into my life."

Cecil pulled Carlos into his arms, gently running his hands up and down his back. "I love you, Carlos. I love your Kokum, too."

He smiled weakly, nuzzling into Cecil's shoulder. "I love you too. I'm sure Kokum would have." He paused, seemingly thinking hard about his next words. "I haven't talked to Mushum since Kokum passed away."

"Maybe you need to call him tonight."

"Yeah, I do." He hesitated again, pulling away from the embrace but keeping a hand on Cecil's shoulder. "I think I'd really rather visit though. If you'd be okay with it, would you come with me? I want you to meet Mushum."

"I'd love to meet Mushum." Cecil replied earnestly, placing his hand over Carlos' on his shoulder.

They smiled at eachother, Carlos bringing Cecil into another embrace.

"There's... something else I want to ask you, Cecil." 

"Anything." He gently kissed at his partner's jaw.

"Did you ever come across that box of mine? It was small, I asked you to let me unpack it."

"Yes, I remember seeing it. Do you need it?"

"Yeah, I want to show you something in it." Carlos stood up, pulling Cecil up with him. Taking his hand, he lead Cecil to their bedroom and into their shared closet. "Packing it up was difficult enough, I didn't feel ready to unpack it just yet." He took a shoebox-sized box down from the top shelf in their closet, carefully holding it close to him. He sat down on the floor, prompting Cecil to follow. Placing the box between them, Carlos slowly lifted to lid off the box. "I got some things from when Kokum passed on. She didn't have any granddaughters, and Mom was her only daughter, but she wanted to leave something to the grandkids for us to pass on to our kids." He explained as he carefully laid out a few intricately detailed hair clips, a small leather pouch, and an infant-sized pair of handmade leather gloves. "I think my great-grandmother made most of these." 

Cecil stared, appearing to be in awe of the items. "They're stunning." He managed to get out, hands hovering over his lap. "Can I touch them?"

"Yeah, just be careful. They're really old." Carlos laid out one last item, wrapped and tied with leather and sinew. "This is what I really wanted to show you, though."

Cecil set down the gloves and turned his attention to the last item from the box. "What is it?"

Unwrapping it carefully, Carlos began tearing up a little more. "It's a comb. I know my Kokum made this one." He reached out, offering the small wooden comb to Cecil. He accepted, gingerly sliding it out of Carlos' hand and holding it with both of his. "When I was a kid she would comb my hair with this all the time."

Cecil turned it over in his hands, looking over the small details of the comb. "Wow..."

"I know my hair is short now, and it'll be hard to braid it, but I was wondering if..." He trailed off, running the leather through his hands. "If you'd comb and braid my hair for me."

Cecil got a shock through his spine. "I'm not sure I'm very good at it, but I'll try. Only for you, Carlos."

He smiled, running a hand through his hair. "Thank you. If you sit on the bed I'll sit on the floor in front of you."

"You can tell me more about Kokum while I'm doing it, if you want."

"I'd like that."

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be something way different and more focused on Cecil and a little of his backstory, but I got this idea out of nowhere and had to make it happen. Hope it's enjoyed by readers as much as I enjoyed writing it!


End file.
